Dominate Showbiz: Media Tycoon Discovered My Talent-Chapter 51: Why Didn’t You Offer?

"Of course I do," Karl said, completely unaware of the spark of mischief lighting up her eyes. "All the department heads. Production, operations, PR, marketing, finance, everyone. Even that old cunning fox."

Her breath hitched. "Charles Kosonen would also be at the festival?"

"Of course. That old fox has to stick his nose into everything!"

So Charles was really coming. She wasn’t sure she was ready to see Charles again so soon after that awkward elevator encounter with Antony.

After a few more prying questions, with nothing left to squeeze out of Karl, she grabbed the door handle. "You must be tired from such a long flight, huh?" she said with one last deceptively bright smile. "I better go. I don’t wanna disturb your precious rest time, superstar. Take care! Bye bye!"

Clack.

She shut the door before Karl could get another word in. Even then, she could still hear his growling rumble through the door at her abrupt escape. She hurried to the elevator and vanished before the grumpy ash-haired wolf called Karl Hanski could catch up.

Now that she knew he lived just one floor below her, and that he wanted her flat, she could already sense the days ahead were only gonna get louder and messier.

That night, Antony sent her the file of the full track. Excited as she was to hear her first ever professionally produced record, the text that came with it was kinda... weird.

Cranky Antony: "I overheard you’ll choreograph this song with Dani. Why Dani?" *neutral face*

Kaikai: "Because Dani offered to help me with that?"

Cranky Antony: "Why didn’t you ask me?" *angry face*

Uh-oh. That didn’t seem very ideal. She didn’t even know Antony was an emoji guy.

Kaikai: "Why didn’t you offer?"

Cranky Antony is typing . . .

Seen at 11:11 PM

Then his online status dot went from green to grey.

She blinked at the screen, baffled. Good thing Dani was online. She texted Dani instead to let her know that the track was done and they could start working on the choreography now.

Dani suggested they meet in the dance studio in the evening at 9 PM so that it wouldn’t be occupied, and no one would be around to eavesdrop on the song.

With one last kissy emoji sent to Dani, Kaija tossed her phone aside and knocked out.

The next morning, Antony was in that extra bad mood again. She decided to wait until evening to show Dani the track rather than doing it in front of Antony. Before that, she had other classes to finish, and one of those classes were the long-awaited photoshoot with Juho.

She arrived early. Juho came just five minutes later. When he walked in, there wasn’t a single flicker of sadness on his face. No stress, no exhaustion, no sleeplessness. He seemed... strangely fine for someone whose dad and brothers had just been publicly investigated for drug crimes.

Kaija sat and watched Juho’s face closely as he worked through the camera settings. A while later, he started noticing her quiet scrutiny and started feeling slightly uneasy under those sharp blue eyes.

"Is there something on my face?" Juho asked.

"Not at all," she replied, still staring.

His brow creased slightly. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

She gave him a sly smile. The fact that there was nothing on his face was exactly the problem. She decided to save the cover photo request for later, and dig a little deeper into how he was staying so calm in the middle of a fire. Just a little bit deeper.

"Well...", the word drawled out, "I’ve watched the news lately, and I saw that things don’t seem to be going very well for your father."

Juho’s furrow eased, his mouth curling slightly like he was about to laugh, but he held it back. "So you’ve been wondering why I look so unaffected?"

She nodded hesitantly. Juho always caught onto her thoughts so effortlessly.

His face lit with an easy smile. "Let’s just say no dog likes being chained to a leash."

"I don’t quite get what you mean." Her brow furrowed.

His easy smile only grew brighter. "If my father is taken down, along with some of his favorite scum, there won’t be a leash around my neck anymore."

A tiny light bulb flicked on in her head. She finally understood what he meant now. It seemed Juho had wanted his father to be exposed. "But if so, why did you use me against Charles to help your father?" she asked.

His face stiffened slightly. "Because... I was hoping for some recognition I’ve never gotten from that man."

Kaija fell quiet. The way Juho face fell as he said those words made her want to reach a hand up and pat his shoulder, for she knew that feeling in his chest. But she also had to remind herself she shouldn’t trust him so easily, at least not yet.

"Would they drag you into the investigation too?" she asked.

"Not at all," he shrugged. "As you might’ve noticed, most people don’t even know I’m his son. Only a few of my father’s most trusted men know."

So she was right that Juho’s existence and identity was kept a secret. "Then... do you know how the investigation is going?"

He chuckled lowly, shaking his head. "Right now there’s no guarantee how it’ll turn out, Kaija. He might get bailed, he might walk free. He’s got enough connections to make that happen. All I can tell you is I’m doing what I can to make sure my old man ends up behind bars along with his underlings."

"Then... what would happen if he’s convicted?" she pressed.

His chuckle died. The green in his eyes stilled as he stared down at her, his tone dropping low and cold. "Then I’ll finally have everything that belongs to him."

Her eyes widened slightly at the abrupt change in his tone. He was doing it again, with those sudden switches that sent shivers down her spine and snapped her defenses awake.

"Would that include... the drug dealing thing?" she asked, watching his expression carefully for any hint of change.

Juho didn’t answer at once. His cold gaze held hers for a long while, before easing back into that easy smile.

"That, I’m afraid I can’t tell you."